This week saw the battle of the X Factor taking centre stage, with the release of the debut albums of both Journey South and Andy Abraham.

Journey South’s self titled album ‘Journey South’, which contains some original songs written by Carl and Andy Pemberton, has pipped the post, and now holds number one spot in the UK album chart.

Andy Abraham and his album ‘The Impossible Dream’ came close behind and holds the number two spot.

X factor winner Shayne Ward will release his self titled debut album in just afew short weeks so it will be interesting to see if he can manage to knock the boys off the top spot!

Almost three months after the last piece of glitter fell beside Shayne Ward on the X Factor live final, the three finalists have gotten around to releasing their albums. Hooray! What were their names again? I’m only joking, sorry Steve!

Shayne Ward, Journey South and Andy Abraham have all released (or are about to release) their debut albums.

Shayne’s riding high on the success of “That’s My Goal“, and so he can afford to take a little longer with his self-titled debut. The album is released on 17 April 2006. I wasn’t overly excited about “That’s My Goal”, but the success speaks for itself. I just hope the material matches expectations!

I’ve heard Journey South’s long-named first single “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“, and early indications are good. Thoughtful and sensitively performed, Carl and Andy are appealing to a more mature market and I’m hopeful they’ll carve a decent career for themselves.

Andy Abraham’s The Impossible Dream is being well received so far. In the aftermath of the X Factor, the amiable Andy is in the unenviable position of being perhaps the least marketable of the finalists, at least in terms of the pop charts.

So, although I don’t think the album chart battle will be quite so dramatic as the X Factor final was, I hope the material does the artists justice and that they all get the success they deserve. Still waiting to hear about Maria Lawson though!

They were tipped all week as being the new number one of the singles chart but it seems that the three weeks of heavy promotion of his single by Preston in the Big Brother house wasn’t enough to guarantee the top spot.

This week saw the top ten dominated by Big Brother singles, with The Ordinary boys reaching number three with their single “Boys Will Be Boys” and Pete Burns band ‘Dead Or Alive” reached number five with ‘You Spin Me Round’.